Tickety boo…Tickety boo…

Didn’t quite get the run’s in I’d hope but ended the week on a real high with some brilliant news; more on that in a bit.

After Thursdays long run hit the gym late on Friday, missed my trainer so was able to abuse a treadmill for 5 miles before I fell into a leg strengthening session with a bit more weight. Will perhaps explain the session in more detail next week, reckon it’s something will continue to work at long term as the benefits are really starting to show on the longer runs especially in the hills.

Spent a mammoth cross-training session Saturday digging out shrub roots in the garden, back breaking work so decided to save the legs for today’s long effort.

Set out real early on the York streets, it was cold to be sure so dug out a long sleeve top (will stay in shorts for as long as possible) for the first York session of the year. Route was into the City via Knavesmire then onto the inner ring round. Ran an easy first mile then figured for a while would just see what happened, my watch was tucked under my sleeve so couldn’t see the splits. Decided to just run in the comfort zone but still keep the effort honest and work hard.

Did feel like a real classic tempo session with the pace slowly building, last few miles really stepped up the effort, checked the pace a couple of times as it really started to bite. Over the last mile & a bit pushed hard and have to say finished strongly.

Sun 8 Nov,  Fosse Island,  11.53 miles

Pace Splits: 9:00, 8:34, 8:19, 8:15, 8:13, 8:01, 7:38, 8:00, 7:59, 7:48, 7:29, 7:26

Left Achilles felt a bit stiff, knees no problem, ITB no problem, back only ached in the last mile and post-run didn’t give as much pain as last week….so all-in-all achy bits behaved well for a change.

So the flippin brilliant news; Friday was sheltering under the lee of my garage door, just got home, my daughter came bouncing down the street with Julie in tow. She had just run her Year’s Cross Country Race at School on the York Knavesmire. Don’t think even she could quite believe the result, she announced had finished 3^rd, well 3^rd overall (behind a couple of boys!)…..she had only gone and finished 1^st Girl. What a little star…….There were 90 runners and about 45 girls so she had done absolutely brilliantly. We’d talked about the race before often and worked out a race plan for her, to be honest had forgot all about it……she said during the race she’d kept thinking of me whilst racing, felt very humbled but gotta say was so proud of her and so very pleased for her.

She is desperate to be picked for the school cross country team and reckon Fridays result will perhaps secure her a place for sure……Girl done good…..